Young & Restless - November 2022 Episode Counts

[YRfan23]

November 2022 Episode Rankings
A total of 20 Episodes aired this Month
thanks as always @jcar03!

1.) Bryton James (Devon Hamilton) : 12
*.) Christel Khalil (Lily Winters) : 12
3.) Melissa Claire Egan (Chelsea Lawson) : 11
*.) Mark Grossman (Adam Newman) : 11
5.) Joshua Morrow (Nicholas Newman) : 11
*.) Jason Thompson (Billy Abbott) : 11
7.) Peter Bergman (Jack Abbott) : 10
*.) Courtney Hope (Sally Spectra) : 10
*.) Melissa Ordway (Abby Newman Abbott - Chancellor) : 10
*.) Susan Walters (Diane Jenkins) : 10
11.) Sharon Case (Sharon Rosales) : 9
*.) Trevor St. John (Tucker McCall) : 9
*.) Michelle Stafford (Phyllis Summers) : 9 
*.) Eileen Davidson (Ashley Abbott) : 9 
15.) Sean Dominic (Nate Hastings) : 8
16.) Amelia Heinle (Victoria Newman) : 7
17.) Connor Floyd (Phillip "Chance" Chancellor IV) : 6
*.) Allison Lanier (Summer Newman) : 6
*.) Melody Thomas Scott (Nikki Newman) : 6
20.) Michael Mealor (Kyle Abbott) : 5
*.) Brytni Sarpy (Elena Dawson) : 5
22.) Eric Braeden (Victor Newman) : 4
*.) Michael Graziadei (Daniel Romalotti) : 4
*.) Judah Mackey (Connor Newman) : 4
*.) Mishael Morgan (Amanda Sinclair) : 4
26.) Zuleyka Silver (Audra Charles) : 3
*.) Rory Gibson (Noah Newman) : 3
*.) Anna Khaja (Dr. Malone) : 3
*.) Kelsey Wang (Allie Nguyen) : 3
30.) Camryn Grimes (Mariah Copeland) : 2
*.) Elizabeth Hendrickson (Chloe Fisher) : 2
*.) Jess Walton (Jill Abbott) : 2
33.) Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin) : 1
*.) Kate Linder (Esther Valentine) : 1
*.) Tracey Bregman (Lauren Fenmore Baldwin) : 1
*.) Cait Fairbanks (Tessa Porter) : 1
*.) Keena Ferguson (Jean Davis) : 1
*.) Beth Maitland (Traci Abbott) : 1
*.) Paxton Mishkind (Johnny Abbott) : 1
*.) Natalie Morales (Talia Morgan) : 1
*.) Kellan Enriguez (Harrison Locke) : 1

 

[Paul Raven]

TGVN 4 appearances!

[YRfan23]

I am starting to wonder if it’s for personal reasons why Braeden hasn’t been on much, or Victor is actually on the back-burner

[kalbir]

EB is pretty active on Twitter, so I don't think he's having any health issues. He has always maintained he has no plans to retire.

[Broderick]

It's the ever-tightening budget, I expect.  

In 2009, we famously learned Hans has a contract cycle that begins in October & ends in September. 

"In October 2009, Braeden and The Young and the Restless came to an impasse regarding contract negotiations, and press reports indicated he might leave the show. However, CBS later announced that Braeden had inked a new three-year deal and would remain with the show, agreeing to a reduction in salary, which was the original issue."

Look at a recent 36-week period: 

December 2021                                                    13 shows

January 2022                                                         9 shows

March 2022                                                           16 shows

April 2022                                                              14 shows

May 2022                                                                9 shows

June 2022                                                             15 shows

July 2022                                                               10 shows

August 2022                                                          13 shows

September 2022                                                     9 shows

TOTALS                                                                   108 SHOWS IN A 36-WEEK PERIOD, EXACTLY 3 SHOWS PER WEEK AVERAGE

Now, look at his latest contract cycle, beginning in October of 2022

October 2022                                                            4 shows

November 2022                                                        4 shows

TOTALS                                                                      8 SHOWS IN AN 8-WEEK PERIOD, EXACTLY 1 SHOW PER WEEK AVERAGE

 I'm guessing that Hans signed a new contract in October 2022 that dropped him from a 3-show per week guarantee to a 1-show per week guarantee.  I could be dead wrong, of course.  

 

 

 

[Paul Raven]

Boy, a once a week guarantee at reduced salary is quite a comedown.

Maybe Braeden has accepted that he has reduced bargaining power these days and that a once a week average is all he is physically up to so he accepted.

It certainly takes the pressure off the writers to come up with stories for Victor.

[Broderick]

I've always suspected that in the first big round of pay-cuts, certain senior actors (Hans, Melody Thomas, Peter Bergman) probably kept their existing guarantee of episodes (2.5 per week, 3 per week, whatever they had in place) but were given a reduced salary per episode.  Other senior actors (Doug Davidson) probably kept the higher salary per episode, but had the guaranteed number of episodes chopped down substantially or even eliminated entirely.

Now, with viewership still eroding and even more cutbacks necessary, we'll see both components come into play for the senior cast members -- those who were given a smaller per-episode-salary in 2009 or 2010 will now see their guaranteed number of appearances reduced as well.   

(Just my suspicion.)   

[Paul Raven]

Interesting...

And it seems that newbies are on a 1 or 2 day guarantee.

I randomly checked Sean Dominic's first 13 weeks and it averaged out to 2 per week.

[Broderick]

Yes, in the case of newbies, I suspect they have a lower rate per episode PLUS a lower guaranteed number of appearances, so there's a certain financial flexibility in using them more often as the budget allows.  You can sometimes afford to work them in excess of their "required minimum".  But in order to free-up the revenue to expand their appearances, you need to reduce the number of required appearances of say a Hans Gudegast or a Melody Thomas or a Peter Bergman, who have the higher dollar amount per appearance.  

These monthly recaps are a great tool for looking at the trends that are developing.  

We've talked a lot about the senior cast members and their required minimums.  It appears to me that Kate Linder and Christian LeBlanc have been downgraded to shockingly low required minimum appearances, or they're possibly even "glorified recurring", though they're still listed as contract cast members.  

[Paul Raven]

It was mentioned somewhere SOD? Doug Davidson?  that the show offered them recurring with the courtesy of appearing as contract.

No way is Kate Linder on any sort of contract.Ii think her few appearances per year is so she can still collect benefits eg medical coverage etc.

Although why they don't use her a bit more is a mystery.

Mind you, the way the show operates is a mystery in itself.

[YRfan23]

Kate Linder does double duty as a flight attendant as well so I think she’s pretty good financial wise. 

[Broderick]

Doug Davidson, Kristoff St. John , Christian LeBlanc, and Kate Linder were all still listed as contract players in September 2018.  In September 2018, Doug Davidson publicly revealed in several interviews (and on Twitter) that he'd been working without a contract since January 2018, although he was listed as a contract actor.   He implied (but didn't state outright) that he wasn't alone in the "fake contract group".

Our poster, French Fan, was doing the episode counts during that time.  French Fan was consistently listing Doug as a contract actor.  Other posters would alert French Fan, 'You should remove Doug from the contract list, as he's recurring. He's admitted that he's recurring."  French Fan said, "Nope, can't do it.  He's still listed as contract."  (And he was still listed that way.)  Finally, in November 2018, two months after his public announcement that he'd been recurring since January 2018, Doug Davidson was removed from the credits as a contract actor.  It appeared that Doug was only removed because he'd publicly spilled the beans about having no contract. 

Kristoff St. John died in February 2019.  He was immediately removed from the contract players list at the point of his death.  Bryton gave a "post-death interview" and revealed that Kristoff (in addition to agonizing over his son Julian's death, was "very depressed" about his "status with the show" and whether he still truly "had a job".  Bryton said he'd been trying to cheer Kristoff up about his job situation.  (The implication was that Kristoff had ALSO been bumped to recurring but was still quietly masquerading as a contract performer, as Kristoff, unlike Doug Davidson, hadn't opened up publicly about his contract status.) 

[The last time that Bryton James saw St. John was a day he’ll never forget as he and another close friend, Daniel Goddard (Cane), spent an entire day with their distraught pal in a show of moral support. “He had been drinking pretty heavily for days straight and was talking about the possibility of hurting himself,” James explained. “He was convinced he had lost his job, just so many things. It was all wrapped into grief about Julian… I’d never seen somebody suffer, in person, like that. It was the hardest thing to watch, it was the hardest thing to see because you can’t do anything.”]

During all this, not a peep from Kate Linder or Christian LeBlanc, who'd seen their own appearances drastically reduced in a corresponding time period with Doug Davidson & Kristoff St. John's noticeable absence.  

Kate and Christian kept on posting positive things about the show on social media and attending show events and acting as though they were happy as clams with appearing five or six times a year (in Kate's case) or once or twice a month (in Christian's case).  

If I had to guess, I'd say that all 4 of them (Doug, Kristoff, Christian and Kate) were bumped during Mal Young's 2018 tenure but were allowed to continue being credited as contract players because of their seniority.  Don't know it for a fact, just guessing it.  But if they really DO still have contracts, Kate's contract must guarantee her about 6 shows annually, and Christian's contract must guarantee him about 2 shows per month.    

 

Edited December 9, 2022 by Broderick
To add quote from Bryton

[Paul Raven]

Does she still work as a flight attendant?

I haven't seen any mention of it in years. Is there an age limit for that job? Kate is 75.

[YRfan23]

I’m not sure honestly…maybe she doesn’t do that anymore, but I thought a few years ago she was still doing that.

[BoldRestless]

 

This article from June 2022 says she still is. She also still tap dances as we saw in the 1991 masquerade ball!

https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/why-young-and-the-restless-star-kate-linder-works-as-flight-attendant/